Run-Down Forums

[Micah Ward]

All things considered, it sounds like the Lopers had a decent season. Are you pretty much satisfied with how things turned out? Will you be starting indoor soon?
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[Distance_Guru]

One thing about me is I won't be satified until I'm raising a national championship banner at the end of a season. But I am not dissapointed either. The kids ran hard and did the best they could under the circumstances. The men's team was thin to begin with and we had a couple of athletes that could have helped us come into the season a little dinged up and never got well. The women were talented and tough, but we were in a very tough region and conference, we caught a few bad breaks, but they ran with desire all year. You can't ask much more than that.

As for indoor, I'm giving the kids two easy weeks (more to the athletes that need it) and then we begin our track specific training. The first indoor meet isn't until Jan 18. but the coaching staff is planning an inner squad before Christmas break.
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Time is the fire in which we burn

[Distance_Guru]

Well the results from the national championships (D2 and D3) are in. In D2 Western won both the men and the women's team races. I expected their men to win although I was a little surprised that their women beat Adams. In that race Adams went 1-2-9 but Western followed by going 3-4-5-8. Throw in a runner from Northern Colorado at 6 and our region had the first six finishers and 8 of the top ten individuals. The men's race was more spread out but Westen beat Abilene Christian by a larger margin than most people expected 35 to 81. With Western winning both races and Adams finishing 2 in the women and 3rd in the mens, a long with SD State coming in 4th in the men and 7th in the womens races our region will again have 5 teams going to nationals again next year. (Each region gets two automatic berths plus an additional berth for every team it puts in the top 8 the previous year.)

On the D3 front NE Weslyan finished 4th followed by Willamette in 5th in the men's race.
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Time is the fire in which we burn

[Dan]

That's one heckuva region you've got out there! Would you say the regional meet was possibly tougher through 7+ teams than nationals?

The season ended in a bit of a disappointment for the Willamette crew, but they're all back next year for another shot at it...

Dan

[Distance_Guru]

I'm not exactly sure what you're asking but my men were 13th at Regionals and probably would have beaten the 23rd and 24th place teams. My women, who finished 11th at regionals, probably would have been in the high teens somewhere beating between 5 and 8 teams.
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[Dan]

What I meant is that the region accounted for most of the top teams and individuals at Nationals, and not all the top teams were able to qualify out of the region, so it would seem the Regional meet may actually have been stronger through maybe 10 teams than the National one. If so, that's very impressive.

Dan

[Distance_Guru]

I see what you're saying. We're a tough region but not quite that tough. Although there were some very good individuals (possibly top 20-25) every year that get left at home because of the quailifying system used.

I personally would liek to see more teams go out of the top regions, but what needs to happen is we really should have more individuals from non-quailifying teams go.
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Time is the fire in which we burn